Mei Ann Teo '14 and Shayok Misha Chowdhury '16 to Present Work at Prelude Festival 2020
Theatre Directing alumni Mei Ann Teo ’14 and Shayok Misha Chowdhury ’16 will present their work at Prelude Festival 2020. Teo will present her piece hold, and Chowdhury will present episodes from his series Vichitra.
This year’s festival, titled Sites of Revolution, calls on artists, critics, activists, and producers to delve into how current revolutions are unfolding. Broadway World notes how COVID-19’s life-altering impact has coincided with widespread Black, Indigenous, and People of Color-led protests against white supremacy, white fragility, and settler colonialism. As they attempt to capture this historic moment, “artists have adapted their work in innovative ways, redrawing the boundaries of their art forms and rethinking previously fundamental concepts such as "theatre," "performance," "live," and "time-based."
Created by Teo, composed by Orion S. Johnstone, with collaborators You-Shin Chen, Troy Anthony, and Matthias Neckermann, “hold is an invitation to contemplative practice in queer resistance to capitalist conditioning of time, via collective gathering and recurring durational space. hold cultivates the body as site of revolution with seeds of intention sown in the morning and the rain of prayers at night.”
Created, directed, and produced by Chowdhury, with art direction and video by Kameron Neal, and sound design by Jeremy S. Bloom, Vichitra “is an experiment in queer South Asian imagination.” In the first episode, “An Anthology of Queer Dreams,” viewers hear LGBTQ+ South Asian folx from across the world recount their dreams, and in the second, “Englandbashi,” a contemporary ghost story explores reincarnation.
Teo’s creative work spans music theater, intermedial participatory work, reimagined classics, and documentary theatre. Teo was the director spotlighted at MIT’s Symposium Next Wave: The Future of Asian American Theatre, and she has spoken at national conferences including Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas, Association for Theatre in Higher Education, Consortium of Asian American Theaters and Artists, Network of Ensemble Theatres, and Arts In the One World.
Chowdhury is a Brooklyn-based director, writer, and creator. He is a Resident Artist at HERE Arts Center, a member of BRIClab and The Public Theater’s Devised Theater Working Group, a former Resident Director at The Flea and The Drama League, and an alumnus of Ars Nova’s Makers Lab, New York Theatre Workshop’s 2050 Fellowship, and the Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab.
Hold will first air on October 21, 2020 at 8:30 am, with several additional airings through the festival’s end on October 30, and Vichitra will air on October 23 at 8 pm. All events are free to the public and will be held virtually.